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THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB 



NEW YORK. 



i^ROCEEiJiisras 



IN IIKFKliKNOK To I'lIK DKATll 



OF 



HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, 



DECEMBEK 3()th, 1869. 



CLUB HOUSE, MADISON AVENUE, 

Cor. East Twenty-Sixth Street. 

1870. 



/ 



THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB 



NEM^ YORK. 






i>ROOEEDiisras 



IN REFERENCE TO THE DEATH 



OF 



HOK EDWIN M. STANTOK 



DECEMBEK 30th, 1869. 




CLUB HOUSE, MADISON AVENUE, 
Cor. East Twenty-Sixth Street. 

1870. 



TRIBUTE 



HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



EX-SECKETAKY OF WAR, AKD ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME 
COURT OF TUE UNITED STATES. 



On the 24th day of December, 1869, the telegraph startled 
the country with the sad news of the death of Hon. Edwin 
M. Stanton, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, and ex-Secretary of Y^ar. Immediately 
upon the receipt of the intelligence, Mr. Charles Butler, 
Senior Vice-President, issued the following call for a special 
meeting of The Union League Club : 

"The Union League Club, 

" Friday, 2-itli Becember, 1869. 

" A special meeting of the Club will be held on Satiirday 
evening, 25th inst., at eight o'clock, to take proper action 
in respect to the sudden death of that distinguished and 
patriotic citizen, the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, late Secre- 
tary of War. 

" Charles Butler, 

" Vice-Pi'esidenf." 

In accordance with this call a sad company assembled at 
the Club House on Christmas eve'.iing, and, after organizing, 



unanimously adopted the following j^reamble, o£fered by 
Dr. Francis Lieber, and resolutions, proposed by Mr. Wil- 
liam Cullen Bryant : 

" We, the members of the Union League Club of the city 
of New York, having heard with profound grief the death 
of Edwin M. Stanton, the greatest War Minister of modern 
times, to w'hose energy and lofty patriotism the ultimate 
success of the national cause is owing, as much as to any 
other individual man ; who trusted in the people, and 
called forth and organized victorious armies in an age 
which, until then, was un-military ; the unsullied citizen, 
through w^hose hands passed more millions than have passed 
through those of any other man ; who entered his high office 
not rich, and left it poor ; the true and sterling man, who 
was sincerely averse to holding public office, however high, 
but sacrificed his health, his property, his life, to it when 
the salvation of his country was at stake ; Stanton, whom 
it is feeble to call a Roman, but whom we call, with joy in oxir 
sadness, a noble American : Therefore — 

" Besolved, That the members of the Union League Club 
cherish with the sincerest affection the memory of that great 
man, who, by his lanparalleled services to the nation in the 
days of her peril and distress, has earned the everlasting 
gratitude of the jDeople of the United States. In his 
place in the Cabinet in that fatal hour when the seat of gov- 
ernment became on a sudden the centre of treason, he was 
one of the few faithfid heroes and patriots who, by firmness, 
energy, and wisdom, saved the fragments of the State from 
the noxious plots of traitors, and the not less deadly imbe- 
cility of the Executive. Called by providential wisdom to 
the charge of the War Department in the darkest hour of 
the rebelhon, his indomitable w411, his never-failing courage, 
his far-reaching forethought, and matchless executive genius 
organized the shattered forces of the Republic, and from de- 
feat and despondency wrought out at last the triumph of our 
arms and the salvation of the nation. No matter what 
dangers threatened, the people relied with sublime confi- 
dence on the patient wisdom of Lincoln, sustained by the 
exhaustless energy of Stanton, to bear them safely through. 
They were ever faithful to the trust, and both alike have 
sacrificed their lives to its discharge. 



" Resolved, That in the career of Mr. Stanton as an advocate 
of the first merit, of stern and incorrnptible integrity, of 
learning, eloqnence, and power, who regarded his great pro- 
fession always as a means of doing justice and not of per- 
sonal aggrandizement, the people had abundant reason to 
rejoice in his recent elevation to the Bench of the Supreme 
Court, which, while it was a deserved tribute to his patriot- 
ism, was at the same time a marked acquisition to justice 
and to the dignity of that eminent tribunal. 

"Rpsolved, That out of regard to his memory the portrait of 
Mr. Stanton in the Club House be draped in mourning for 
thirty days, and that a copy of these resolutions be sent by 
the Secretary to his family." 

Messrs. Alexander T. Stewart, William Cullen Bryant, Lo 
Grand B. Cannon, Joseph H. Choate, and Jackson S. Schultz 
were then ai^pointed a committee to arrange for an address 
before the Club on the life, character, and services of the late 
Secretary of War, and to report such other additional testi- 
monial to Mr. Stanton as they might think proper 

A committee of fifteen, Hon. Henry E. Davies, chairman, 
was also appointed to attend the funeral of Mr. Stanton on 
behalf of the Club ; and the Club then adjourned. 

The committee having matured th( ir i^lans, a special 
meeting of the Club was held on the 30th December, 1869, 
pursuant to the following call : 

IN M E M O K I A M . 

The Union League Club, 
26th Street, cor. Madison Avenue, 
New York, Dec. 28, 1869. 

SiE,— A special meeting of the Club will be held at the 
Club House on Thursday evening next, 30th inst., at 8 
o'clock, to listen to addresses on the life, character, and ser- 
vices of the late Hon. Edwin M. St.^ktox, which are expected 
from several gentlemen. 

J. L.VNGDON V> \HD, 

Secretary. 



Mr. Charles Bc'tlee presided. 

Mr. A. T. Stewart, from the Committee on the Address on 
the Life of Mr. Stanton, presented the following report, 
which was read by the Secretary : 

The Committee to whom it was referred to propose some 
testimonial, in addition to that adopted by the Club, in 
honor of the memory of the late Edwin M. Stanton, respect- 
fully report : 

That they recommend that a Committee of Seven be ap- 
pointed and announced by the Chair, this evening, to co- 
operate on the part of this Club with other committees or 
citizens, or other associations in this city or elsewhere in the 
Union, in obtaining subscriptions to a fund to be presented 
to Mr. Stanton's family, as a testimonial of the public sense 
of the invaluable services rendered by him to his country 
as Secretary of War. 

It should be enough to state that adequate means have not 
been accumulated for their support, and that this measure is 
required not only as an expression of gratitude, but also as 
an example which will encourage a fearless, unselfish, honest, 
and patriotic discharge of public duty. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

For the Committee. A. T. Stewart, Chairman. 

The report was unanimously adopted, and the Chair an- 
nounced, as the Committtee therein provided for, Messrs. 
A. T. Stewart, Marshall O. Roberts, Moses H. Grinnell, 
Le Grand B. Canxox, Jackson S. Schultz, George Cabot 
Ward, and AVilliam T. Blodgett. 

The Chair then introduced Mr. William Cullen Bryant, 
who spoke as as follows : 

ADDRESS OF MR. BRYANT. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen, — Among the many vir- 
tues which adorned the character of him in honor of 
whose memory we are assembled this evening, the most 
remarkable and eminent, perhaps, was his disinterested- 



ness. He never thought of gaining anything by an office 
which he held for himself ; neither popular favor, nor 
fame, nor fortune. He thoiaght only of serving his coun- 
try. In the age in which we live, a mercenai-y, venal, 
self-seeking age, when public men seek to win popular 
favor by the lowest arts, and enrich themselvess by the 
basest means, this is a shining example. Disinterested- 
ness — self-sacrifice for the good of others — is the basis 
of all true nobility and grandeur of character. I do 
not believe that Mr. Stanton ever thouglit of the con- 
sequences to himself, in any of those multitudinous and 
important transactions of the War Office in which he 
was engaged. Enemies he made, and many bitter ones, 
and was perfectly wiDing to make them if he could not 
otherwise serve his country. He was perfectly indifferent 
to censure incurred by any course in which he was 
certain he was right. He loved not office, and gladly 
retired from the post he held the moment he thought 
his services were not needed. In the many rapid de- 
cisions which the exigencies of the times compelled him 
to make, there is no doubt that he occasionally commit- 
ted injustice. These errors of his have been collected 
by his enemies with a malignant diligence, and have 
been dwelt upon with an artful rhetoric ; and a sedulous 
attempt has been made to show that Mr. Stanton is un- 
worthy of the sorrow with which he is mourned through- 
out the land. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen, the Divine Government 
has so ordered the constitution of the world that there 
are few of the great blessings of life which have not 
their attendant evils. This fair earth which feeds us with 
its harvests, and on which we plant our habitations, is 
shaken, and yawns with earthquakes that overturn cities 
and bury their inhabitants. The air we breathe, and 
without which we shouM expire, often carries on its 



8 



gentlest breezes the contagion of disease from place to 
place, or it gathers itself into whirlwinds, uproots forests, 
lifts our dwellings from the ground, and scatters the 
timbers like chaif. The sun, himself, the source of 
light and warmth, strikes down men in its midsummer 
heats, and parches the land with fearful droughts. What 
a case might be made against the sun if all the in- 
stances of death by sunstroke were collected together, 
and all the cases of withering drought and consequent 
famine, and noxious exhalations drawn up from the 
gi'ound, to say nothing of the venomous reptiles and in- 
sects drawn to life by its beams, and the fierce and 
formidable beasts of prey which haunt the regions where 
he sheds his most direct rays. Yet, Mr. President and 
Gentlemen, we every morning rejoice in the retui-n of the 
sun. We bless God for the beautiful earth which he has 
made our dwelling-place. We breathe with delight the 
air in which he has wrapped the globe. In like manner we 
glorify the Providence which watches over the destiny of na- 
tions for having raised up in the time of our country's great- 
est peril, and placed in that department of the Government 
which was then the most important, such a man as Stanton 
— of a quick sagacity, a I'esolute will, and utter indifference 
to personal interest ; an untamable courage, and a fiery 
energy, to carry forward the great canse in which we were 
engaged — the great cause of the country and of liberty — 
to a glorious and successful termination. "\^'e thank the 
Lord of Hosts for raising up such a man, whose veiy 
faults were but the wild outgrowth of a noble and generous 
nature ; weeds in a fertile garden, a thistle or two among 
wholesome herbs and nutritious roots which were nourished 
in a generous soil. And now, gentlemen, bj'- the courtesy of 
my excellent fi'iend who presides at this meeting, I am per- 
mitted to call up a gentleman, who, during the time that Mr. 
Stanton held the War Oftice, had the opportunity of observ- 



9 

ing him closely, and who will be able to analyze the web of his 
character thread by thread ; and if he finds in it, as he per- 
haps may tell you that he did, some traces of a coarser 
and harsher yarn, mingled with the nobler material, he is yet 
too just and too generous to disparage, for that reason, the 
fabric as a magnificent whole. I will call up a gentleman 
Avho himself took a large share in the mission of mitigating 
the miseries of our late war, who stood at the head of one of 
the noblest institutions of this or any other age of mankind, 
the Sanitary Commission, and whose arduous labors in that 
great w^ork of humanity have carried his name to the utmost 
bounds of the civihzed world. I call on the Kev. Dr. Henry 
^\. Bellows. 

ADDEESS OF REV. DE. BELLOWS. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen, — Nothing but m}'- respect 
for the urgent wishes of the Union League Club com- 
municated to me by the committee who waited on me 
with the request, would induce me to appear as one of 
those who, to-night, are to give voice to the reverence 
and gratitude of this patriotic body for the great and 
glorious services, the pure and exalted j)atriotism, the 
tempted and tried, yet spotless, character of Edwin M. 
Stanton ! Not only have I no claim, from long jyev- 
son:il intimacy or special acquaintance, to speak of 
him, but I might be pronounced by Mr. Stanton him- 
self, were his shade permitted to w^aive a forbiddance, 
disqualified for the friendly office. For, although favored 
with his afi'ectionate and confidential acquaintance for 
a short period after he came into office, I had the mis- 
fortune to fall into a serious misundc^rstanding with, him 
at a very early period of his official career, which em- 
barrased and complicated my duties as the head of 
the U. S. Sanitaiy Commission, and closed my per- 
sonal relations with the Secretary for the residue of 



10 



the war, and, indeed, of liis life. My favorable testi- 
mony, therefore, is at least that of an unimpeachable 
witness, and as I am not a volunteer on this platform, 
I trust that those who enjoyed his permanent confi- 
dence and friendship will think it some compensation 
for the loss of eulogies of love, that they hear the 
cooler jiraises of justice — the expression of that com- 
pulsory gratitude which even personal grievances could 
neither extinguish nor dim. 

And yet, perhaps, it may be an offset to the only 
sort of unfavorable criticism which Mr. Stanton's memory is 
Hkely to encounter in respectable quarters — namely, that of 
having had brusque and violent manners, and strong and 
rancorous prejudices— to say that no man ever had gi'eater 
excuses for them, or, on the whole, turned them to a better 
account. At the time he took the War Office the chief peril 
of the country lay in the gentle and complying temper of 
great officials ; the corrupting influences brought to bear 
upon their personal sensibilities ; the concessions made to 
private claims and impulses at a moment when the opportu- 
nities of office and the optional reading of its rules by offi- 
cials involved the making and losing of vast fortunes for 
others; when banks, railroad companies, cor jjorations of all 
kinds, and factories and industrial interests of all sorts were, 
by their agents, besieging every department of the Govern- 
ment, and using every kind of personal wheedling, and strain- 
ing every partisan and political nerve, to save themselves 
from ruin, or to avail themselves of some connection with 
the vast expenditures of the Government to make their for- 
tunes. At such a time, we wanted not courtiers and dilet- 
tanti in modes and manners in the chief seats of power 
and patronage ; but rather prompt, severe, stern, and deci- 
ded men, who forgot friendship, set aside personal feelings, 
acknowledged no private claims, ignored their own personal 
yearnings, and administered then- overwhelming duties and 



13 

the flag kept uutarnishe'l. Bat no habits of the civilian 
alone could have equipped Mr. Stanton for the all-important 
service ! His preparation was in his nature and tempera- 
ment. 

" He was uot of that strain of counsellors 

That, like a tuft of rushes in a brook, 
Bends every way the current turns itself. " 

Of Vii'ginian parentage, he had enough of her hot blood in 
his veins to understand that the quarrel with the South was 
"to the death," and enough of her fierce and self-devoted 
spirit to meet her advances with a sword as sharp and , 
thrusting as her own. He loved his country with the ardor 
of a bridegroom, and hated her enemies with the godly jeal- 
ousy of a husband for the rival in a wife's affections ! It was 
no cold, calculating patriotism that could consider the 
advantages and disadvantages of disunion or of compromise, 
that was wanted in the Government or in the country then, 
but a passionate devotion, a hot, fierce, one-sided, terrible 
earnestness, such as would bum through opposition, fire the 
lukewarm, consume the doubts and fears of the wavering, 
and melt into a lava-stream of volcanic fury the party ele- 
ments, the business hesitations, the personal waverings, the 
philosophic misgivings, the "can'ts" and "won'ts" of the 
moderate and the mild, the s(4f-styled waiters on Providence, 
and the logic of events. y.There are times when passion — 
noble, god-like, infinite passion, that lets the force of the 
universe into the channels of human affairs, and multiplies, 
by an infinite factor, the fractional and limited powers of 
calculation and reason — can alone work the saving miracles 
by which the souls of nations and the lives of States are saved. 
Who could look on the pale, scholarly visage rising above 
the broad shoulders of that great Secretary, and not per- 
ceive that the white heat of a devouring passion for his 
country and her cause was giving vent to the national vol- 
cano thi'ough his Titanic soul, and that the crushing, rushing 



u 



fury of the national devotion and self-abandonment was 
finding its first full outlet and expression in his character 
and his jjolicy ? And oh ! how rare is that divine anger, 
that impersonal fary, that becomes the greatest causes, and 
leads to the results of such lives as Luther's and Crom- 
well's. 

What is it the American people lack so much as reasons 
for a faith in the deep, self-forgetting earnestness and conse- 
cration of their public men ? Make them absolutely sui'e 
that their statesmen and rulers love their counti-y, their 
God, their duty, better than themselves, and they will for- 
sake all — party, self interest, pride, and policy — yes, forsake 
all, and follow them ! But, do we remember what this ear- 
nestness and passion implied in Mr. Stanton ? It was 
marked with two qualities, which, in my own brief intimacy 
with him, stood out in most vivid and affecting relief, and 
they were, perhaps, the last traits you would expect to find 
iu such a man, although I believe they are nearly universal 
in the highest natures — tenderness and sadness. Beneath 
Mr. Stanton's robust and stern bosom dwelt a softness and 
gentleness of heart which made him the idol of his home and 
the object of a passionate devotion from his personal friends. 
I shall never forget the way he took me in his embrace, 
almost the first time we met, as if, in his own home, and 
before ati unworldly profession, his official reserves were all 
gladly and irresistibly dropped, and he could indulge the 
luxury of love ! His external manners were the rough rind 
of his tender heart. Rather than against others, he pro-_ 
tected himself against himself — the relentings of his gentle 
spirit, the j)erilous softenings of his soul — by the iron mail 
of a brusque and cold carriage. The betrayer he most 
feared was in his own heart, and that made his eye and his 
brow discharge their amenity, to hide from the world the 
place where he alone was vulnerable Mr. Lincoln — let his 
name never be publich' pronounced without honor and rev- 



15 



erence — had not a gentler heart than Mr. Stanton, and it 
was their common tenderness that melted them together and 
made them one through the war. I should not have been 
surprised at any time to have found them locked in each 
other's arms, and kissing like girls, after a day's struggle to 
be stern and cold in their great and never-ceasing conflict 
with the enfeebling seductions of a betraying pubhc. 

But Mr. Stanton had a higher mark of greatness, because 
of a diviner type — sadness — the sadness of souls that feel all 
the lonehness of their unshared responsibihty; the greatness 
of their ideal shaming theii- best accomplishments ; their 
yearning for sympathy, backened by the necessary, uncon- 
querable superiority and elevation of their views, so that 
they are dwarfed by the distance in which they leave others 
behind them, and made solitary and lonely by the heights 
they attain. There was an almost tragic sadness on Mr. 

Stanton's face. 

" With grave 
Aspect he rose, and iu his rising seem'd 
A pillar of State ; deep ou his front engraven 
Deliberation sat and public care." 

It was not like the sadness on Mr. Lincoln's countenance, 
which resembled that on His face that was " more marred 
than any man." The President was plowed and furrowed 
with sorrow, till his face looked like the sea after a storm, 
when the winds are hushed, but the waves still roll, and the 
gi'ay clouds make them leaden and drear. But Mr. Stanton's 
sadness was rather that of the midnight embers, which show 
fire slumbering beneath the ashes— ashes which disappoint- 
ments, griefs, misunderstandings, abuse, delays, have heaped 
up, but which, dun and silent, hide unconquerable flames in 
their bosom ! I must leave others to speak of the other 
point, in Avhich we lacked most and were supplied by 
him — administrative skill and energy, the largeness and 
promptness and many-sided activity exhibited in the great 



16 



War Secretary's administration. I will not say he bi'oug-lit 
the native American genius for administration into the War 
Office, because, great as Americans show themselves in the 
management of their private concerns, they are yet to prove 
their superior talent for public administration — execiitive 
genius being yet rare. But Mr. Stanton had it, and he 
showed on a public scale just the qualities which our greatest 
merchants and movers of corporations exhibit in their pri- 
vate business. He was as clear, and prompt, as all-knowing, 
and omnipresent in the Department as Mr. Stewart is in his 
mercantile establishment. But all his patience of details, 
his untiring energy, and ceaseless labors would have been of 
little avail without the personal character he brought to the 
work. Of great solidity and compactness of frame, thought, 
care and sorrow had refined his face, and softened his flowing 
beard, and purified his complexion, till he looked the image 
of a scholar pale from serious or sacred studies. Temperate 
in the extreme, he seemed to live from meat and drink un- 
Hke that of other men, and to keep his body under with 
almost saintly rigor. When I first knew him he was already 
an invalid, and an object of solicitude to his family and his 
physician — although he repelled sympathy, and even seemed 
annoyed at inquiries about his health — a pretty sure sign of 
a consciousness that all is not right. He worked when he 
could not eat, and his invalid hours seemed equal to other 
men's best ; for he lived from his soul, and not fi-om his 
body. It was the " aliqidd immensum, injinitumque" in him 
which supplied all that physical strength, or exhausted 
nerves, or a weary brain denied. Just so long as the 
coiTntry and the caiise required him, he was equal to any- 
thing and everything, and postponed sickness, weariness, 
and almost self-consideration of any kind, to the hour when 
he would not be missed. To his pure hands, up to the arm- 
pits in the national wealth, there did not stick one traitorous 
piece of silver. Nobody not too black to receive a new 



17 



stain has dared to hint a suspicion of his integrity. Oh, 
how great, how fortunate the lot which that noble patriot 
has enjoyed and supported ! While mere military glory may 
dechne or suffer deductions from the sober estimates of his- 
tory, who does not know and feel that Mr. Stanton's fame 
has only begun to glow, and that those rays, beautiful and 
warm as they are, which, within one week, have been shining 
in concentrated splendor about his bier and on his hardly - 
closed grave, will gather in history into a sun that will fill 
distant ages and climes with the perfume and the glory of 
his deeds and his name ? If, like another Elijah, he had 
ascended in a chariot of flame, it would have fitly symbolized 
his career, for he guided the burning axles of the national 
wrath, organized its fury, inspired its course, witnessed its 
victory, declined its rewards, and almost shrunk from its 
honors ; and because we could not pay him for all this, God 
took him to his own keeping, and may be tx'usted to requite 
our hopeless debt. Of Mr. Lincoln and his great counsellor 
and close companion in the war that made the nation great 
in itself, and in their pure and precious characters, may we 
not say as Sir Walter Scott said of Fox and Pitt : 

" Speak not for those a separate doom 
Whom faith made brothers in the tomb, 
But, search the land of living men. 
Where wilt thou find their like again ?" 

ADDRESS OF REV. DR. THOMPSON. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen,- W^hen the one man who 
could have secured to France the benefits of her revolution 
while averting its excesses, thus conserving liberty with 
order — Count Mirabeau — had ceased to breathe, the intelh- 
gence was communicated to the Assembly in this brief and 
emphatic sentence: "He is dead!" And when the few 
journals of that day communicated to Paris and to France 
the great catastrophe, so momentous for the future destiny 

2 



18 



of the nation, they opened the obituary with the same brief 
and pregnant words — " II est mart !" No name was needed 
to interpret them. Evex'ybody knew who was dead. The 
man who had said of himself, " In anarchy, a despot may 
even seem a savior ;" the man of whom others had said he 
could not have a party, for his only party w^as his head ; the 
man who, amid the stormy scenes of debate and the bloody 
tumults of the populace, had established order and unity by 
the magnetism of his presence, by the force of his will ; that 
mighty ruling and taming spirit, whose very violence within 
itself commanded calmness in others, had ceased to be ; he 
was dead. So when, last Friday, the telegraph flashed to all 
parts of this country the intelligence of the death of Mr. 
Stanton, everybody — man, woman, and child — knew who was 
dead. It was not that a party in the country had lost its 
leader, for he, too, could have no "party" whose only 
party was " his head". It was the nation that now felt the 
loss of one who, with all the virtues of Mirabeau and more, 
and with none of his vices, had dared to seein a despot that 
he might be a savior. The army of the North knew that he 
had gone, who, through all the war, had fed, clothed, equip- 
ped, housed, and organized them for victory. The scatter- 
ed, broken army of the South knew that that mighty spirit 
had passed away, which, behind the array of artillery and 
the strategy of generals in the field, had moved on with un- 
relenting vigor, with steady, ever-growing pressure, until the 
rebellion was crushed, because he would hear no terms but 
absolute submission. The civilized world knew that that 
great Minister of War had j^assed away, who, from the peace- 
ful industries of the i^eople, had raised and equipped an 
army of 1,500,000 men, and when their work was done had 
remanded that army in two days to the quiet walks of indus- 
trious peace. The nation saw the patriot and statesman 
whom she was just beginning to appreciate, and to whom 
she had awarded such honor as office and eulogy could be- 



19 



stow, rising above the honors thus laid at his feet, to aceept 
the crown of immortahty. There is hardly another man in 
the nation whose death could create in every household, for 
various causes, so profound an impression ; and how few 
names are there among those that are gone that will stand, 
as the speaker before me has intimated, so great, so growing 
in the coming history of this country. 

After your committee had tendered me the most unex- 
pected comphment of an invitation to particijiate in these 
services, on re-entering my library, my eye fell upon a pic- 
ture of those twin Colossi that stand in solitary grandeur 
upon the plain of Thebes, representing the monarch returned 
from successful wars — the whole country subdued to his do- 
minion and peace established without — sitting down here in 
absolute rest, looking forth into unfathomable dej)ths, as if 
commanding the empire of the world and of time. They 
stand as the sublimest impersonation of Majesty in repose. 
The Nile rolls the waves of its inundations around their 
pedestals ; all about them are the ruins of temples, and sta- 
tues of forgotten men and gods, but there they stand immov- 
able to-day as when erected more than three thousand years 
ago ! Not altogether mute, for one of them is the fabled 
Memnon that greets each morning sun with its note of wel- 
come. 

So it has seemed to me that a thousand years hence, the 
historian tracing the events of these times, and coming upon 
that flood of war that rolled over the land and threatened to 
merge all in ruin and desolation, will see rising above it two 
majestic forms, twin figures in virtue and in honor, twin 
saviors of their country, twin also in the enjoyment of the 
crown that History has conferred, — side by side, sitting with 
undisturbed repose, iinwasted by all the changes of the ages 
since, unforgotten amid the dim memories of the past ; not 
silent either, but speaking wherever thought is honored, 
wherever virtue is revered, wherever patriotism is respected, 



20 



whei-ever history is known, speaking of the grandeur of de- 
votion to country and to truth ; two xinrivalled figures, Lin- 
coln and Stanton, side by side, in the foreground of a heroic 
past. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen, the key-note of power in 
this world is Personality. Not thought alone, not eloquence, 
not position, not circumstances give influence, but a living 
personality, that can impress itself upon men and the times 
by the force of a human soul putting itself into the souls of 
others, into the spirit of the nation. This nation had need 
of such. Go back ten years, to the time Avhen this great free 
people were still cowed and bullied by slavery, when this 
vast nation of intelligent men was ruled by imbecility ! What 
need we had to rouse ovir souls, to lead us on to the grand 
possibilities of the future, saving us from the impotency and 
destruction that threatened us ! — what need of an example 
of self-sacrifice, of supreme devotion to country, of loyalty 
to truth and justice! What need we had, within the walls 
of the Constitution our fathers had built, of such a zeal for 
the house as would drive out with the scourge the profaners 
of the temple, and overturn the tables of the money-changers ! 
And these examples were given. Personality, on the one 
side by the gentle magnetism of love, in Lincoln ; on the 
other by the force of indomitable will and courage, in 
Stanton. We needed the last as well as the first. It came 
to us in the rough, it remained in the rough ; the tires of 
the war tempered and annealed it, but never enamelled it. 
There it stood, a pillar unpolished, but strong and true, 
that the nation might lean upon it. 

It is now nearly forty years since Mr. Stanton left a book 
store in Columbus, Ohio, where he had held a clerkship for 
a time — having been di'iven to his own support by the death 
of his father — to resume his studies, intending at that time 
to devote himself to the church. By the persuasion of friends 
he was induced to enter the profession of the law. A gentle- 



21 



man who is with lis to night was at that time a companion 
of his, a clerk in an adjacent store ; they were together clay- 
by day, in conversation and in recreation, and his playfellow 
said to him as they parted, "You be a lawyer; you are made 
for that, and I shall see you one day Attorney-General of 
the United States." When Mr. Buchanan, in his vacilla- 
tion — for I think we must do him the credit of exempting 
him fi-oni really treasonable designs — when Mr. Buchanan, 
in his vacillation, saw whither things were tending, and 
called Mr. Stanton to the post of Attorney-General, this old 
friend went to see him and congratula«ted him on the fulfil- 
ment of his prophecy. 

Where did Stanton have his first hearing in his new office ? 
Where did he plead his first cause for the Constitution and 
the laws of his country ? Before its Executive Head, and in 
words which I will give you as they came from his own lips, 
and were taken down by vhis friend, who has put them into my 
hand's. When the news came that Anderson had evacuated 
Fort Moultrie and occupied Sumter, Mr. Buchanan called 
his cabinet together in haste. AVhen Stanton came in, the 
President sat trembling and pale, while the Southern mem- 
bers were loudly demanding an order from him compelling 
Anderson to return to Fort Moultrie. Stanton, hardly wait- 
ing to hear them through, said : " Mr. President, you dare 
not give this oi'der ; it is treason ; it would be a repetition of 
the crime that Arnold committed, and for which Andre died ! " 
In the same conversation Mr. Stanton went on to say : " Mr. 
Buchanan didn't give the order to evacuate Sumter, and 
through all the weary time they were planting their guns 
around it I prayed that they might be mad enough to open 
their fire, for I knew the thunder of their cannon was needed 
to wake up the nation." 

I differ slightly in my recollections — perhaps from coming 
in contact with a different circle of friends at the time — from 
Dr. Bellows, with regard to the position which Stanton had 



22 



already won in the confidence of the country when Mr. Lin- 
coln came into office. It seems to me there was a wide-spread 
expectation that Mr. Lincoln would call him to his cabinet ; 
that he had shown such force of character, such capacity for 
administration, such loyalty to the country, such knowledge 
of executive affairs, as made him a man to be trusted. This, 
however, may be a recollection which has dawned upon me 
through the events of after years. Be that as it may, every 
one was gratified when he was fairly installed by Mr. Lincoln 
in the War Office ; and he brought to the work ability, prompt- 
ness, and energy of application, before unknown. He put 
his whole life and soul into his Avork. He was a man of 
" one idea " in the sense in which Paul, for instance, was a 
man of one idea. There is nothing disparaging in being a 
man of one idea, provided only the idea be great enough to 
possess the soul, and to fire it with devotion for man and 
God. Stanton went into the service with but one idea — to 
serve his country and to save it ; and here he exhibited that 
marvellous power of organization, that promptness in de- 
tails, that energy of will, that at once brought the War De- 
partment up to the highest state of efficiency. A friend said 
to him, near the close of the war: " How was it that you suc- 
ceeded in supplying this vast army throughout this great 
extent of country, whether in the camp or in the field, with 
all that they needed for comfort and support? " " Sir," said 
Stanton, " I will tell you how I managed in one instance, and 
you can infer the rest ; a day or two after I was installed in 
this office, a telegram came from Harper's Ferry urging that 
several large guns should be sent there that day. I at once 
sent an order to the Arsenal for the guns. Being busied in 
my office all day, I went after office hours to the Arsenal to 
see Avhether the order had been fulfilled. I found the 
Arsenal closed and nobody in attendance. Looking up a 
subordinate 1 learned that no guns had been sent. After 
having tried, in vain, to find the keys, I had the door broken 



23 



open ; helped drag the guns out, accompanied them to the 
railway, saw them put on the train, had an engine fired up, 
and those guns were ofi" that night for the Ferry." The next 
morning the incumbent, not knowing of this action, came 
into the War OiSce and said : " It was not convenient, Mr. 
Secretary, to despatch those guns yesterda}-, but if you think 
it is at all urgent I will attend to it at once this morning." 
Said Stanton : " The guns are now at Harper's Ferry, and 
you, sir, are no longer in the service of the United States 
Government." I see you understand, gentlemen, the ques- 
tion is answered. 

But let me tell you another instance. You will recollect, 
from having read the history afterwards, though the painful 
facts at the time were largely concealed from the public — 
you will remember what a stress of anxiety there was when 
our army was penned up at Chattanooga — its supplies cut 
off, and itself almost threatened with famine. Great fears 
were entertained at Washington of some catastrophe there. 
Stanton resolved that that army should be reinforced. Ho 
met the President and the Cabinet, and urged upon them 
his views. He took pains to ascertain from railway men how 
long a time would be required to transport an army corps 
from the Potomac to the Tennessee, and, with his facts all 
jjrepared, he forced his way through the objections of the 
Cabinet and the Generals, and succeeded in obtaining from 
the President the order that the thing should be done. 
Within twelve hours from the issuing of that order, an army 
corps was on its way to the Tennessee, detached from the 
Potomac army, where at that time it was not needed. Stan- 
ton himself was on his way, riding day and night, to meet 
General Grant, for conference. On the ninth day (he had 
promised within ten) that army relieved Chattanooga ; the 
enemy was held in check, and presently came that magnifi- 
cent series of victories, in which the names of Hooker, of 
Thomas, of Sherman, have become immortal. 



24 



With this energy and determination in carrying out to 
the full all the responsibilities and details of his office, he 
had sometimes a boldness in taking the responsibility, that 
nothing but the extraordinary emergency could have justi- 
fied, and that nothing bvit the marvellous patience, wisdom, 
and good-nature of Mr. Lincoln would have tolerated ; and 
yet Mr. Lincoln was led time and again to concede that, in 
such matters, the Secretary was wiser than he. For in- 
stance, when the good-nature of Mr. Lincoln was beset with 
entreaties to commission this man and that to this office 
and that in the army, he sent in at one time to the office of 
the Secretary of War a large batch of newly made commis- 
sions to be countersigned. When the messenger returned, 
the President inquired, " Is that business all done ? " 
"With one excejition," said the messenger. "What was 
that?" "It was the commission of a Major-General." 
" What did the Secretary say about that ? " " He didn't 
say anything ; he tore it up and threw it into the waste 
basket." "Indeed," said Mr. Lincoln, "he must have 
had some very good reason." You all remember how 
the country was astounded just after the capitulation of 
Lee's army, by the announcement from the officer then 
in command at Richmond, that the Rebel Legislature 
would convene (to consider upon what terms the State 
would re enter the Union) by authority of the President of 
the United States — Mr. Lincoln then being in Richmond, 
Mr. Lincoln returned to Washington a day or two after. 
His Secretary of War waited upon him, and handed him an 
order which he said he had issued during his absence, which 
was an order displacing the General in command, substitu- 
tuting another, and revoking his convocation of the Legisla- 
ture. " Well," said the President, " What does this mean ?" 
"I saw," said Mr. Stanton, "that he was throwing away all 
that we had fought for these four years." " But, did you 
not see that that was done by my authority ? " " Yes, Mr. 



25 

President, I saw that it was by your authority, and I re- 
solved to save the country while I could, and hand you my 
resignation." The President did not accept that resigna- 
tion. The matter, as the story goes on good authority, was 
discussed in Cabinet, the Cabinet to a unit sustaining Mr. 
Stanton. That night the ball of the iissassin verified his 
judgment. 

Mr. Stanton had largely the element of hope. We are 
saved by hope ; and underneath that tone of sadness of 
which Dr. Bellows has spoken, was an unfaltering confidence 
in the success of the cause, an undying trust that the Union 
would be saved. He, perhaps, was the only man who never 
faltered or wavered ; for even Mr. Lincoln at times — his 
great heart so pained and grieved with the losses and dis- 
asters of the war, with the anguish of the nation that he 
bore upon himself, and made a part of himself — would verge 
toward despondency. Such an hour was that — and this I 
give as coming from the hps of Mr. Stanton himself to a 
friend, though he had no thought at the time that it would 
reach the public ear — such an hour was that when a series 
of disasters was crowned with the defeat of Chancel lorsville. 
The Secretary of War, in such times, never left the office 
day or night ; did not sleep there, for he did not sleep at all, 
but stayed there on his couch, with his ear ever on the alert 
for any telegraphic despatch. On that night, Mr. Lincoln, 
who had been there through weary hours — ^through sleepless 
days and nights, was now in a perfect torture, bordering 
on despair ; and, as the news came in worse and worse, 
Mr. Lincoln arose from the couch on which he had been 
lying, and said : " Ah, Stanton, I can't bear this ! I should 
be happier to-night if I could walk into the Potomac, and 
sink !" "No," said Stanton ; "you and I are set hereby the 
country to see this thing through, and we can't sink. Come, 
we will go to the Potomac." In an hour after midnight he 
had a tug ready, and they two steamed off to the nearest 



26 



point of access to tlie army. The next day they saw the 
Generals, saw the army, rank and file ; saw that though this 
army was beaten, it was not annihilated — it had fight in it 
yet, and the President came back revived, full of new cour- 
age and hope. 

Courage Stanton had, which, had he been called upon 
to exhibit it in the field, would there have made him re- 
nowned in deeds of valor. But he had that higher moral 
courage which faces obloquy and opposition, and dares 
to do right against even the misconstruction of friends. 
I think he manifested the highest type of courage in the 
closing act of his public life, when he who, as all now know, 
desired no office, but longed to have his hands free from all 
public responsibilities and return again to his profession 
and to the walks of private life, yet consented to submit to 
the misconstruction of being tenacious of office, and full of 
egqtism, and all such like aspersions, because he saw that to 
go out of that office, though he knew the man in power be- 
hind him would gladly kick him out if he could, was to put 
in jeopardy the great interests of the country, not yet fully 
saved. Courage to do an unwelcome duty without explain- 
ing himself to friends, without defending himself from ene- 
mies; the grand self-sacrifice that led him there at the first, 
kept him there to the end. 

And now, when we know, as an intimate friend of his who 
had knowledge of his accounts has told me this ver}- day, 
that this man, who, when he accepted office, was in the 
receipt of perhaps twenty-five thousand dollars a year from 
his profession, just beginning to win its honox's and emolu- 
ments, relinquished this for a salary of one-third that 
amount, a sum utterly inadequate for the support of his 
family, and came out of that office not only unsullied but 
having actually spent thirty-one thousand dollars of his lim- 
ited private property, for the support of his family, we 
shall look, I fear, almost in vain for another such example in 
the history of our counti-y. 



27 



There he stood through all that storm of war, a rock so 
high that no waves of rebellion or opposition could dash over 
it — a rock so firm that no tides of corruption could under- 
mine it. You have heard more than I could tell from any 
personal knowledge, of another trait of his character that yet 
deserves to be distinctly recalled in connection with its 
rougher and grander elements — ^I mean the tenderness of his 
nature. Two instances will suffice to paint this upon the 
picture, just here. When he would spend whole nights for 
weeks together, in the AVar Office, feeling that that was the 
post of his duty, never living at home, he yet made it a j^oint 
with the break of day to go out into the market and provide 
for his family, and was accustomed to say to his friends who 
wondered that he did not take those hours for rest : " This is 
the only green spot that I have in my life — to go and see in 
the market place a little of the freshness of nature, the fresh 
gTeen products, the fresh, sweet-scented flowers, and to do 
this service for my family." Look at him again as he stands 
in that house opposite the theatre where the life of Abraham 
Lincoln is ebbing away ! See how the tears course down his 
manly cheeks ; see with what tenderness and reverence he 
recognizes the presence of God, and requests a clergyman to 
lead in prayer, setting the example of kneeling by the bed- 
side ; see how, with more than a brother's love, he watches 
over that dear form until there is life in it no more ! then 
rises as if himself baptized with the blood of the martyr, 
again to summon the country to fidelity and to victory ! 

There is a moral sublimity worthy of such a life and his- 
tory, in the manner of his dying. Just as he who had led us 
to the triumphant close of so great and terrible a war, was 
invited to sit on the tribunal of justice to administer the 
affairs of peace, he heard the voice of Him who is the Prince 
of Peace, saying, "To him that overcometh will I grant to 
sit with me on my throne." 



28 



ADDRESS OF GEN. THOMAS B. VAN BUREN. 

It is with the greatest rehictance, Mr. President and gen- 
tlemen, that I attenqit to put into language my estimate of 
the character and services of the sleeping hero whom we 
mourn. 

When I remember the wonderful events that crowded the 
later years of his life; when I reflect upon his patrioti^in, his 
exhaustless energy, his indomitable will, his utter forget/ulness of 
self, his devotion to his country, and his sacrifice in her liehalf ; 
when I see on all sides the abundant fruits of his unceasing 
vigilance, his unwearied care, his unselfish labors, it seems to 
me as if golden silence alone could render a fitting tribute to 
his memory. 

But if speech were needed, certainly the choice words 
which have fallen from the lips of the eloquent gentiemen 
who have preceded me must fill u]) the measure of your 
desires. 

Can I say anything they have not said ? Ah, the theme is 
a wide one, I grant you. Eulogy may here exhaust itself and 
not degenerate into bombast. Coming generations will rec- 
ognize, as true to nature and to history, the most striking 
colors in which the deeds of this great man may be depicted. 
Neither shall time fade these tints away ; but, mellowing as 
they go down into the future, his grand and noble character 
shall be esteemed by after ages as one of the gi-eat gifts of 
God to his country and the world. 

Sir, this Club remembers — every patriot in the land will 
recall the dark days of our terrible struggle, when some 
haitle had been lost, some new and dangeroxis treason discovered, 
some dial)olical plot unearthed ; when at emry bulletin board 
loom and anxious faces read loith dixmay the dread intelligence ; 
wh:.n every true heart beat with an.riety, and the nation itxelf 
seemed stricken with paralysis; how, standing firml}' at his post. 



29 



working with teeming brain, with sivelling heart, with untiring 
hands, knowing no rest, dismayed by no terrors, thinhing only of 
his country, Edwin M. Stanton electrified the nation anew with 
his own energy and determination, and patriots ivhis-pei~ed to each 
other "All is well while Stanton is Secretary of War." 

The rebellion, Mr. President, although plotting and matu- 
ring for half a century, burst upon us with the suddenness of 
a tropical tempest. 

The trumpet blast that called the nation to arms was 
sounded when our whole Northern country was given up to 
the peaceful pursuits of industry ; when our little navy had 
been scattered upon every sea, oar army dwindled into insig- 
nificance, our arsenals emptied, our treasury plundered, and 
the minds of our people whirling on a chaos of conflicting 
sentiments. 

What wonder, then, that immediate success did not wait 
upon our cause ? What wonder that the great heart and 
brain of Lincoln, the experience and earnestness of Cameron, 
the energy and devotion of Stanton, and the uprising enthu- 
siasm of the people did not vanquish at once otu' long-pre- 
jjared and bitter foe ? 

Those qualities which make up the impulsive and daring 
soldier we all admire, but we rely most upon those stern vii*- 
tues which learn "to labor and to wait." In these was Mr. 
Stanton pre-eminent ; and with a determination that knew no 
lessening, and a confidence of final victory that no defeat 
could shake, he began and carried forward those great pur- 
poses which will forever make his name famous. We do not 
yet fully appreciate his untiring labors and their vast results. 
Foreign nations looking upon our condition believed in the 
speedy triumph of our enemies ; England, longing for our 
downfall, sneeringly predicted we could not safely venture 
thirty miles from our base. Our Southern ports and strong- 
holds were in the possession of our foes ; our frontier of 
thousands of miles was exposed and defenceless ; soldiers 



30 



educated by the Government had betrayed their country 
and given their skill and experience to her enemies ; and it 
seemed for a while as if the task of subduing the gigantic 
rebellion was impossible ; but our great Minister never 
wavered in his work and his hope. Armies were organized 
until they embraced a million and a half of men, and this 
vast host was armed and equipped and marched hundreds of 
miles into the enemy's country, suffering defeats and gaining 
victories, until, hardened and disciplined, it conquered the 
rebellion by its invincible strength. During all this time, to 
the amazement of the world, this great army was provisioned 
and cared for, as, I venture to say, no other army ever has 
been of which history gives any record. 

Carnot, the great Minister of War and of the Interior upon 
whom Napoleon relied throughout his career, had no task 
like this. Speaking of him, the Emperor afterwards said : 
'• Carnot I knew well ; this stern old republican had refused 
me the Empire in 1815 ; his mind was stamped with a pro- 
bity that no circumstances could change, but to this honest 
and energetic will there was added a love of opposition and 
of Utopian theories." Ah ! this American republican of ours 
had no Utopian theories. A certain love of opposition he 
may have cherished, but / for one shall not impute it to him 
as a crime. The commissariat of the French army, warlike 
nation as it was, never compared with ours during the late 
war, nor did its forces number half of those which conquered 
the vast territory of the rebellion. When concentrating his 
forces of 340,000 men at the crossing of the Neimen, Napo- 
leon proudly exclaimed : " To form such an assemblage in the 
forests of Neimen required not a little care and foresight in 
directing the march of the columns, and in arranging sup- 
plies for an army whose horses alone numbered 200,000, and 
whose carriages were not less than 20,000. We might here 
without exaggeration (he says), use the hyperbole employed 
to describe the army of Xerxe-s : 'A/tar its pa^isage the tj en- 
deavored to find the countries which it had passed over.' " 



31 



Is it asking too much to say that could that renowned 
warrior have looked npon our gigantic struggle, and have 
seen so great an army marching such distances and through 
such a country, provisioned so bountifully and accomplishing 
such results, he would have deemed no language too strong 
to express his admiration of the controlling mind that worked 
with such resistless energy as Minister of War ? 

With the life and fame of William Pitt, the hei^^d of the 
English Grovernment during her wars with the French Re- 
public and the Empire, you are all familiar ; a man of splen- 
did abilities, of jDrofound information, of rare experience, he 
united in himself the qualities of a great statesman and noble 
citizen who devoted himself to the interest and glory of his 
country. The facts warrant me, however, in saying that 
during the time Mr. Stanton was Secretary of War of this 
Republic, he accomplished a greater work than ever fell to 
the lot of Pitt or any other War Minister of the world. 

An English historian thus speaks of Pitt after the war with 
the Republic of France : 

" Great as Pitt's abilities were, his military administration 
was that of a driveller. He was at the head of a nation 
eminently distinguished by all the physical and all the moral 
qualities which make excellent soldiers. The resources at 
his command were unlimited. The Parliament was even 
more ready to grant him men and money than he was to ask 
them. In such an emergency and with such means, such a 
statesman as Richelieu, as Louvois, as Chatham, as Welles- 
ley, would have created, in a few months, one of the finest 
armies in the world, and would soon have brought forward 
generals worthy to command such an army. Germany might 
have been saved by another Blenheim ; Flanders recovered 
by another Ramalies ; another Poitiers might have delivered 
the Royalist and Catholic provinces of France from a yoke 
which they abhorred, and might have spread terror even to 
the barriers of Paris. But the fact is, that after an expendi- 



32 



ture of wealth far exceeding the expenditure of the American 
War, of the Seven Years War, of the Wars of the Austrian 
Succession and of the Spanish Succession, united, the Eng- 
lish army under Pitt was the laughing-stock of all Europe. 
It could not boast of a single brilliant exploit. It had never 
shown itself on the Continent, but to be beaten, chased, 
forced to re-embark or compelled to capitulate. To take 
some sugar island in the West Indies, to scatter some mob 
of half-naked Irish peasants — such were the most splendid 
victories won by the British troops under Pitt's auspices. 
History will vindicate the real man from calumny disguised 
under the semblance of adulation, and will exhibit him as 
what he was, a Minister of great abilities, honest intentions, 
and liberal oj^inions, pre-eminently qualified intellectually 
and morally for the part of a Parliamentary leader, and cap- 
able of administering with prudence and moderation the 
government of a prosperous and tranquil country, but un- 
equal to surprising and terrible emergencies, and liable in 
such emergencies to err grievously, both on the side of weak- 
ness and on the side of violence." 

My friends, there were giants and critics in those days as 
well as these, but I think you will agree with me that the 
latter have much degenerated. 

Pitt, you perceive, was criticised because he was not suc- 
cessful, but he is given credit for great and admirable quali- 
ties. Ah! this writer would not do for some Democratic 
newspapers of to-day. 

An unrepentant rebel, a disappointed traitor, a meddUng 
babbler dismissed from the Department with scant courtesy, 
a political ghoul, lost to all sense of decency, who will prey 
with relish vipon those dead most honoi'ed and most loved — 
of such we may judge some modern critics are made, and 
to these what a feast is offered in the life and services of Ed- 
win M. Stanton. 

He not only supported Mr. Lincoln, but impatiently urged 



33 



the issuance of that renowned order which made a people 
free. He not only pushed forward with all his vigor the war 
against armed treason in the field, but he laid his strong 
arm on dastard traitors at home. He had no mercy for spies 
and informers, for assassins and incendiaries, and when the 
war had been brought to a triumphant conclusion, when the 
sweet angel of peace had spread her white wings over the 
Republic, and the name of Stanton was in every loyal mouth, 
those were the men he had offended. 

He had plundered no man to enrich himself. Those harp- 
ies who fattened on the robbery of their country found no 
friend in him. Receiving a salary scarcely fitted for a clerk 
in his Department, he yet kept his hands clean from all un- 
holy gains, and left his office a poor, but honest man. 

Stern, determined, violent sometimes, against every form 
of wrong, he ever yielded quickly to applications for redress, 
and heard with the tenderness of a woman the tales of the 
sorrowing and distressed. Incidents without number might 
be repeated, in which, after listening with gentle patience to 
some simple story of wrong endured, or suffering borne, he 
has righted the one and relieved the other with his charac- 
teristic promptness and energy. 

When proud officials sometimes were heard with impatience 
and dismissed with short and sharp reiDhes, the wounded 
soldier or the weeping mother was listened to with kind atten- 
tion and answered with careful courtesy. None so humble 
as to be denied admittance. And indeed there was a certain 
hour, I believe, each day when his doors were flung wide open 
to the wounded and the sick, when all could come without 
ceremon}'' or delay. 

With a trust in the wise Providence of Him "who doeth 
all tRings well," he never wavered in his confidence of tri- 
umph ; and many, whose duties called them to the War 
Department, will bear me witness, that frequently during the 
darkest days of the war, Mr, Lincoln recuperated his almost 

3 



desperate hopes from the unflinching courage and magnetic 
will of Stanton. 

Often the great-hearted President might have been seen 
with bowed head, with stooping shoulders, and sad, sad eyes, 
entering the War Oflfice, bearing in his person the sorrows 
and fears of all the people, and looking as if the burden 
was crushing him to the earth ; but, after a half hour, com- 
ing from the interview with his Secretary a changed man, 
his face beaming with new hopes, and his step elastic with a 
new strength. 

Said Napoleon, after his final defeat at Waterloo : 

" Carnot, the old I'epublican leader, best understood the 
nature of the crisis and the means necessary for a desperate 
national defence. In his opinion, the French soil was, at any 
price, to be freed from foreign invaders, and the best means 
of accomplishing this object was to constitute a dictatorial 
power, with all the energies of the Committee of Public 
Safety in 1793. If Carnot was no great statesman, he at 
least possessed the energy of a real old Roman, and let it 
ever be remembered in his praise, that in the darkest hour 
of French history he shook off the shackles of party preju- 
dice, and thought only of his country's honor and glory." 

What, then, shall we say of Stanton ? Coming to the end of 
a victorious war, he asked for no Dictator — nay, when 
anxious to retire from office to recruit his shattered health 
and fortune, he was still more regardful of the loved country 
he had saved, and remained at his post to counteract the evil 
designs of one who in his own person made treason odious. 

Coming from the people, without experience in war, he 
applied to the task he had undertaken, that energy and skill 
which so distinguishes our people. With his strong sense 
and vigorous wiU, he cut through the slow and formal pro- 
cesses of official procedure, and applied to his work those 
principles of labor and business which marked their success 
in the business community. 



And thus, with a patriotism, and energy, and zeal, and in- 
telHg-euce, seldom equalled and never surpassed, this great 
and good man devoted himself to his counti'y until she 
triumj^hed over her foes, until the army was disbanded 
again to the pursuits of peaceful industry, until the Govern- 
ment was secured against every treasonable attempt. When, 
returning to private life, he resumed his profession until the 
summons came to take his place on the bench of the Supreme 
Court, and that swift following and more imperative com- 
mand to '' come up higher," into that presence where are 
assembled the great and the small of all nations, and kindreds, 
and tongues. 

" We say a star has gone out ; 
But iu the eternal system 
No plauet is destroyed, though veiled 
From human sight." 

My countrymen, his memory remains to us — his great 
deeds are part of our history ; and throughout the unknown 
future of this land his name shall ever be quoted as the 
synonym of bravery and patriotism — of truth, and honor, 
and worth. 



At the regular monthly meeting of the Club, held on 
Thursday, May 12th, 1870, Mr. A. T. Stewart presented the 
foDowing report, which was accepted, the resolutions therein 
embodied adopted, and the Committee discharged : 

The Committee appointed to raise funds in honor of the 
late Edwin M. Stanton in acknowledgment of his unselfish, 
patriotic, and invaluable services as Secretary of "War — such 
funds to be applied to the benefit of his family — ^respectfully 
report : 

That the subscriptions paid to the Hon. Moses H. Grinnell, 



16 



who was not only a member of this Committee but of another 

like organization, amount to $26,500 00 

That the subscriptions paid to Mr. A. 
T. Stewart, Treasurer of this Com- 
mittee, amount to $26,550 00 

Which earned interest to the date of 

the Trust, May 7th, 1870 416 44 

$26,966 44 

That it was deemed expedient to unite 

both sums, amounting to $53,466 44 

and deposit the same with the New York Life Insurance and 
Trust Company, to be invested in the public debt of the 
United States and held in trast, the interest to be paid to 
the widow of Mr. Stanton during her life and afterwards to 
her minor children, the principal to be divided among them 
as they respectively become of age. 

The Declaration of Trust was executed in triplicate, one 
of which is hereto annexed, to which the Committee refer for 
the names of the subscribers, its terms, and the commission to 
be received by the Company. The son of the deceased by a 
former marriage does not wish to participate ; he would do 
so in the event of the death of all the beneficiaries in advance 
of a division of the principal. 

The Company have invested the respective sums in 5.20 
Registered Bonds of 1862, as follows : 

The sum paid in by Mr Grinnell in bonds, amount- 
ing to $23,900 

The sum paid in by Mr. Stewart 24,300 

$48,200 
The Committee submit the following resolutions : 

llcKoI ved , That the Club approves of the Trust made with 
the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, and that 



37 



the Treasurer of the Club be requested to keep tne above 
triplicate on file. 

Resolved, That the Chairman of the Committee be re- 
quested to send one of the triphcates to Mrs. Stanton. 

Resolved, That this report be printed, with the whole of 
the Trust, as the Committee having ehax'ge of the printing of 
the addresses made at the Club at the meeting called to pay 
honor to his memory may elect, and circulated therewith. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

Alexander T. Stewart, 

Chairman. 
New Yoke, May 12th, 1870. 



To ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME : 

Whereas, The New York Life Insurance and Trust Com- 
pany have received by the hands of Alexander T. Stewart, 
Treasiu'er, appointed for the purpose by a Committee of the 
Union League Club of the city of New York, twenty-six thou- 
sand five hundred and fifty dollars of principal, and interest 
thereon amounting to SUG/^Aj, together $2G,966yVo, "\vhich 
first mentioned sum is the result of the following subscrip- 
tions : 

Alexander T. Stewart, $5,000 ; Peter Cooper, $1,000 ; John 
David Woife, $1,000 ; Wilham H. Aspinwall, $1,000 ; J. & 
W. Seligman, $1,000 ; Paran Stevens, $1,000 ; J. B. & W. A. 
Cornell, $1,000 ; William R. Stewart, $1,000 ; Henry Clews, 
$1,000 ; Cash, J. Q. J., $1,000 ; James Brown, $500 ; R. L. «& 
A. Stuart, $500 ; William H. Vanderbilt, $500 ; David Dows, 
$500; D. Willis James, $500; William T. Blodgett, $500; Jona- 
than Sturges, $500; Cash, S. P., $500; William H. Fogg, $500; 
Tifi'any & Co., $500 ; Joseph Gaillard, $500 ; Benjamin B. 
Sherman, $500 ; James C. Hoe & Co., $500 ; C. H. Rogers, 



38 



$350 ; B. Hinckley, $300 ; Le Grand B. Cannon, $250 ; 
Jackson S. Sclmltz, $250 ; Charles Butler, $250 ; George 
Cabot Ward, $250 ; P. McMartin, $250 ; John H. Hall, $250; 
Otis D. Swan, $250 ; Ackiau Iselin, $250 ; Robert Hoe & Co., 
$250 ; J. M. Fisk & Co., $250 ; John E. Williams, $250 ; 
Henry L. Pierson, $250 ; John & Hugh Auchincloss, $250 ; 
J. H. Sherwood, $250 ; E. W. Stoughton, $250 ; Howard 
Sanger & Co , $250 ; S. H. Wales, $200 ; Armstrong & Son, 
$200 ; WilHam F. Cary, $100 ; Benjamin H. Field, $100 ; 
Gustave Schwab, $100 ; J. S. Rockwell, $100 ; Charles H. 
Isham, $100 ; John C. Southwick, 100 ; Charles G. Havens, 
$100 ; Hoyt Brothers, $100 ; Wilham C. Bryant, $50 ; Joseph 
Allen & Co., $50 ; Cash, H. W. S & Co., $50 ; Maltby J. Lane, 
$50. 

And Whereas the said Company have received by the hands 
of Moses H. Grixnell, Treasurer, twenty-six thousand five 
hundred dollars, the result of the following subscriptions : 

Moses Taylor, $1,000 ; WiUiam E. Dodge, $1,000 ; Morton, 
Bliss & Co., $1,000 ; W. R. Vermilye, $1,000 ; Charles H. 
Russel, $1,000 •. Marshall O. Roberts, $1,000 ; M. H. Grinnell, 
$1,000 ; Edward Minturn, $1,000 ; John Steward, $1,000 ; 
John C. Green, $1,000 ; Amos R. Eno, $1,000 ; E. D. Morgan 
&Co., $1,000; Edwards Pierrepont, $1,000; William B. Astor, 
$1,000 ; Joseph Sampson, $1,000 ; John J. Astor, $1,000 ; 
James H. Bancker, $1,000 ; William Walter Phelps, $1,000 ; 
Adams Express Co., $1,000 ; C. S. Sandford, $1,000 ; James 
Lenox, $1,000 ; Isaac Bell, $1,000 ; Jay Cooke & Co., $1,000 ; 
George F. Tallman, $500 ; A. C. Kingsland, $500 ; P. Hayden, 
$500 ; S. B. Chittenden, $500 ; H. B. Claflin, $500 ; John 
Ponder, $500 ; Isaac Sherman, $250 ; and Peter Townsend, 
$250 (which sums of princijial and interest amount together 
to fifty-three thousand four hundred and sixty-six dollars 
and forty-four cents); which moneys were contributed and 
paid by the subscribers aforesaid on the understanding that 



39 



the same were to be applied to the use of the widow of the 
late Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, and of the children 
of the said Edwin M. Stanton and Ellen H. his wife. 

Now therefore knoio ye that the said The New York Life 
Insurance and Trust Company do hereby certify and declare 
that they take and hold said moneys in trust to invest the 
same and keep the same invested in the public debt of the 
United States of America, and to receive the interest, income, 
and profits thereof, and the same to apply to the sole use of 
Ellen H. Stanton, the widow of the said Edwin M. Stanton — 
to be paid into her own hands or to her order from time to 
time as the same shall accrue, and not by way of anticipation, 
and to be wholly free from the control debts or obligations 
of any future husband or any person whomsoever. And on 
the death of the said Ellen H. Stanton in trust to divide the 
trust estate into as many shares or portions as there 
shall be children or issue of deceased children, if any, of the 
said Edwin M. Stanton and Ellen H. Stanton, his wife, then 
living — such issue to take the share to which the parent, if 
living, would have been entitled — and to j^ay over and trans- 
fer to each of such children who shall then have attained 
the age of twenty-one years, and also to such issue of any 
then deceased child, the share or portion of such children, 
and of the parent of such issue, and to apply the income, 
interest, and profits of the share or shares of any child who 
shall be under the age of twenty-one years at the time of the 
death of the said Ellen H. Stanton, to the use of such child 
until he or she shall attain the age of twenty-one years, 
and thereupon to pay him or her his or her share of said 
trust estate ; and if any child shall die before attaining such 
age, then to pay over the share of the child so dying to his 
or her issue, if any, and if he or she leave no issue, then to 
the brothei's and sisters and i.ssue of any deceased child 
equally, the issue of any deceased child to take the j^arent's 
shai-e : and if there shall be no child of the said Edwin M. 



40 



Stanton and Ellen H. his wife, and no issue of any deceased 
child, living at the time of the death of the said Ellen H. 
Stanton, and entitled to receive the said trust estate, then in 
trust to pay over and distribute the said trust estate to and 
among the next of kin of the said Edwin M. Stanton in such 
shares as they would take by the laws of this State if he had 
died possessed thereof and intestate. 

And it is hereby mutually agreed by and between the said 
Company and the contributors to said trust estate by Messrs. 
Stewart and Grinnell, that the said Company shall be allowed 
to charge and receive for their compensation for execiiting 
the trust hereby created, a commission of two and a half per 
cent on the income of said estate, and shall also be allowed 
for any necessary expenses and charges to which they may 
be subjected in the premises, but they hereby relinquish all 
commissions to which they might otherwise be entitled on 
receiving and paying over the principal of said trust estate. 

In witness Avhereof the said The New York Life Insurance 
and Trust Company have caused theu* corporate seal to be 
hereunto affixed and the same to be attested by the President; 
and the said Alexander T. Stewart and Moses H. Grinnell, 
representing the contributors above named, have hereunto 
set their hands and seals this seventh day of May, in the year 
1870. 

D. Thompson, 

President. 

Alexr. T. Stewakt. 

M. K. Geinnell. 
Sealed and delivered in triplicate ) 
in presence of j 

Geo. 13. Butlek. 



